Fallen Tree at Noland Trail –Part Two- Matt Latham

As I stood up, I thought to myself “I’m not going to find anything” so I sat back down. And what I found I will never forget. I looked out onto the tree and saw animal droppings. I deduced that the droppings must be from animals walking out onto the tree and going after fish further from the bank. Then I looked under the tree and I saw fish and turtles taking refuge under the shelter of the tree from preying birds. I took none of this into special consideration at the time. Then I looked at the tree. It was dying and it its sides were other dead trees. It made me begin to think about how we feel about things that are dead or dying. Take a flower for example: When the flower is bright and fresh it is majestic and beautiful, but as soon as it begins to wilt it becomes and eyesore. It becomes something of no worth and to be thrown in the trash. Here in front of me there was my wilting flower, but it still served a purpose to the world around it. The tree was down, but it was not out! This would all serve little use if you did not understand the mindset that I entered the Noland Trail in. That week and for that matter the entire semester has not been the most pleasant one I remember. Grades were going down, family was getting sick, and friends were not acting friendly. I felt slightly broken down and feeling as if I had no purpose and was lost. Then I found this tree. The tree was just like me, it had fallen, but it had not yet given up! This tree was my natural representation. Had I not entered the Noland Trail with this mindset I would have probably walked straight past that tree. But I entered nature with a head in search and in need of a self-realization. In nature I found not what I was expecting to find, but what I needed to find.